The regrets were endless, and she didn't know how long she sat, bunching the shirt in her fists and sometimes wanting to tear it apart in angst. She finally settled on burying her face in the material as silent tears slid down her cheeks.
Her body jolted involuntarily as warm fingers touched her back, gently tracing down her scars and leaving a trail of sparks in their wake.
"Kaiden..." she spun around and stared at him through blurry eyes. "How are you feeling?" she crawled on the bed to get closer and rested her hands on either side of his face.
"Better, now that you're here," he whispered.
"Thank goodness you're okay. Doctor Sarah said in a day or so you should be all healed, and I'm so thankful, I don't know what I'd do without you—"
"Shhh," he pulled her closer and hushed her with a finger to her lips.
She lay down beside him, as she'd done the last two nights, and rested her head on his shoulder, carefully wrapping her arm around his injured midsection.
"You'd be number sixty-seven if..."
"No ifs, Chesca, just take the present as it comes. You can't blame yourself for everything that's happened," her mate took a steadying breath, and she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "You can't change the past."
"I know. But I still need to learn from it. Learn to trust no one, but learn that I should've trusted you in the first place. How do I deal with such a contradiction?"
He rubbed lazy circles on her back, erasing the ache from her newly acquired scars, as they lay together in silence for a few moments. "By listening to your heart," he answered at length, the softness of his voice soothing her worries and concerns. "And sometimes your head."
"But what about when they tell me different things?" She peered up at him, their faces only inches apart.
"Then you listen to your wise mate," he grinned, and she couldn't help raising her head to kiss his lips. It was a slow kiss, full of promise and meaning, of patience and tenderness. Neither were in a physical or mental state for it to progress any further, but after everything they'd been through, a kiss was the perfect amount of intimacy to speak the thousand words that hung between them.
After a while she gently pulled away and moved to get up, but his arm tightened around her.
"Kaiden, I need to prepare for the funeral rituals," she reasoned despite her heart protesting.
"Just a few more minutes," he pleaded, the warm look in his eyes tugging at her heart. "Please, just stay with me a while longer."
"Okay," she surrendered, and once more rested her head in the crook of his neck after placing a gentle kiss on his mark.
___♥️♥️___
The wild grass swayed in time with the gentle breeze, glistening with a golden hue as the sun slowly sank to the horizon. Swallows and ravens darted and soared in the sky, calling to their mates and preparing to settle for the night.
Under the peaceful atmosphere, the wolves of Steelheart, Razestone, and TidalBay packs were preparing for something also. Men and women carried logs and firewood to the hill that rose beside the lake, a clearing devoid of trees that could be seen from even the lowest valleys near the main pack residence. A large pile of wood was growing with each armload thrown down.
A funeral pyre.
Chesca sat further up the hill, watching the proceedings with a heavy heart.
Plucking a stalk of the long grass, she twirled it between her fingers before tearing it into a dozen little pieces.
"When will you stop blaming yourself?" Lexi asked gently from beside her, laying a hand on her arm to still her agitated movements.
"When it no longer becomes my fault. Which will never happen, so..."
YOU ARE READING
The Alpha's Shatter Zone ✔️
Werewolf"Go ahead, kill me," she dared. "And why would I do that?" he stalked closer, a glint in his dark eyes. "Why not? Isn't that what you came here for?" "My Dear, you are far more valuable to me than just the key to this pack." He slid his hands around...
